Future State - Top Ten: #10. Dark Detective

 

Writer: Mariko Tamaki

Artist: Dan Mora

I’ll admit upfront, my interest going into Dark Detective was artist Dan Mora, who readers will probably most recognize from the pages of Once & Future, but for me Grant Morrison’s Klaus. I think he’s a great talent just waiting for full recognition.

The comic being told with his art this time is as worthy of his talent as ever (he also knows how to pick projects, so that’s good).

In the greater scope of Future State, it was probably going to be tough being a Batman book and not being Next Batman, the one that got all the hype and arguably the reason Future State ended up happening at all, but Dark Detective has Bruce Wayne, unexpectedly still very much active.

According to recent canon (“Joker War”) Batman’s just lost his billions, and so he will, at the moment, have to accustom himself to fighting crime on a budget. In Dark Detective he’s had a similar setback, having been assassinated by the Magistrate (in both identities!) and now being forced to exist underground.

One of the neat aspects is Bruce and his roommates, surely a novelty of Batman comics if there ever was one. Mariko Tamaki and Mora have subsequently transitioned to the pages of Detective Comics. I would personally love it if they ended up pursuing a pre-Year One arc involving Bruce’s world travels before returning to mount his crusade. They seem ideally positioned for it.